Stock Up/Down: Wide Receivers, Tight Ends and Running Backs All Show Out in Spring Game, Ohio State Has Defensive Tackle Depth Concerns

Position battles continued unfolding at quarterback, safety and along the offensive line. New faces had big days at wide receiver, tight end and linebacker, among others.

Things were mostly positive as the hype for a new season built, only to lie dormant until preseason camp begins, but it wasn't all sunshine on a day that hovered around 45 degrees. Ohio State still has issues to address with its next wave of defensive tackles, while around the country concerns about the future of college football in the NIL landscape bubbled up.

Stock Up

Weaponry

The completeness of Ohio State's offensive skill talent was on full display in the spring game. Second-unit wide receivers Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter had big outings, particularly Graham, who collected four receptions for 104 yards and a touchdown, per the Buckeyes' spring game stats. At running back, Bo Jackson gobbled up 88 yards in just 13 carries, as Sam Williams-Dixon also impressed behind starters James Peoples and CJ Donaldson. I've already written at length about the standout performance of the tight ends.

For another year, Ohio State should have the best weapons in college football this fall.

IOL

Ohio State averaged 5.9 yards per carry in the spring game and got significant push up the middle, not just from its starting trio of Luke Montgomery, Carson Hinzman and Tegra Tshabola, but from its second and third interior offensive line groupings as well. The further the offseason goes, the more this position group feels like a major strength for the Buckeyes.

"The guys who returned, Luke and Carson and Tegra, those guys, I think they're feeling more comfortable with what we're doing," Day said after the spring game. "We'll have to assess all that and figure out exactly what the evaluation is. That will all be explained to them during the post-spring.  But good to have guys that have played. They obviously played good enough to win a national championship last year. That's good, but that's not our expectations. Our expectations are that these guys are All-Americans and first-rounders. That's why they're here. That's what they want to be."

Austin Siereveld

Sticking with the offensive line briefly, just like at each of Ohio State's practices open to the media this spring, Siereveld opened with the first-team unit at right tackle in the spring game. Named an Iron Buckeye for the changes he made to his body this offseason, there is a real possibility that the Buckeyes' best starting five up front places the redshirt sophomore at RT.

Linebackers

There might be no coach who's glowed about a player more than James Laurinaitis has glowed about Payton Pierce this spring. Pierce's spring game performance highlighted why. He was all over the field, blowing up screen passes, disrupting the running game and flexing his wrestling background by knocking over offensive linemen. But Sonny Styles was a consistent backfield invader during his limited series, too, and fellow starting linebacker Arvell Reese was no slouch. 

Julian Sayin

Sayin's performance has been talked up plenty since Saturday, leaving him the frontrunner for the starting quarterback job after spring practice. So I'll just leave you with this beautiful dart of a throw into a window too small for any building other than a dollhouse:

Make that 3 first-half TD drives for Julian Sayin in the OSU spring game.

It wouldn't have been possible w/o this play:

Facing pressure from his left side on 3rd-and-7, he zipped a dart to WR Mylan Graham, who made the catch despite tight coverage from CB Aaron Scott Jr. pic.twitter.com/t5vCusjUFa

— Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom) April 12, 2025

Stock Down

DT Depth

As the interior offensive line looked imposing during the spring game, the interior of Ohio State's defensive line looked porous in turn. Starters Kayden McDonald and Eddrick Houston held their own, but once the next wave of defensive tackles came on, massive running lanes were opening for the Buckeyes' backs. Transfer portal help is probably needed to give those top two a rest without a dropoff in play.

"I think we've got to take a hard look at it," Day said of adding defensive linemen from the portal. "I don't think I have the answer right now. But we've got to look at it. It seemed to me like there was just a lot of knockback on the offensive side of the ball here. But then again, I don't want to make any judgments until I watch the film."

Information on Matt Patricia's Defense

The complexities of Patricia's scheme and the various personnel groupings he'll employ were kept under wraps on Saturday, as Ohio State stuck to its base 4-2-5 looks with traditional safeties and nickels with no exotic schemes.

"On defense, the guys were very, very vanilla," Day said. "You can see it was really two coverages all day and one front, which is not what we saw all spring. But I felt like, for the most par,t we had a chance to have some film to evaluate."

Attendance

Ohio State announced an attendance of just 40,136 on Saturday, its smallest spring game crowd outside of COVID-19 restrictions since 2005, when 33,918 patrons showed up. Dubbing it the "spring showcase" at first probably killed some interest, but attendance at spring games was down at a lot of places this year. A sign of the times?

50,000 to 5,000. What in the hell is happening to college football? pic.twitter.com/fqmr29GITk

— Cale Gundy (@calegundy) April 12, 2025

Bad Actors in NIL

If you haven't been keeping up with college football news, Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava is splitting with the team after they refused to up his NIL deal to the "4 million dollar range," per On3. He no-showed a spring practice while holding out and the Volunteers moved on from him. 

There's a much broader discourse occurring – rightfully so – about the state of NIL and the lack of guardrails that have allowed college football to get to a place where this can transpire. Here, I just want to express frustration that voices get in these kids' ears in the form of agents or "advisors" or even family members that would try and hold a team hostage for an extra million a year.

Players should be paid what they're worth. But these are young men used by those around them who want a cut of the money generated by their hard work and talent. I have no inside info, but I can almost guarantee it wasn't Iamaleava's idea to hold out in this way, at least not entirely. Former Ohio State defensive end Omari Abor is experiencing a similar emotion to what Iamaleava might soon feel.

@_bigsmooth Worst decision in my entire LIFE #damn #ifuckedup original sound - SHOTTAWORLD